4 injured in Danbury pickup crash

John Pirroand Libor Jany

Updated 9:14 pm, Monday, January 28, 2013

Four people were trapped in an extended cab pickup truck Monday evening following an accident on Clapboard Ridge Road. The accident happened before 5:30 p.m. near the intersection with Old Hay Rake Road. Two women and two men were involved in the accident. Surgens were called to the scene.

One of four people who were trapped in an extended cab pickup truck is transported to an ambulance after being extracated Monday evening following an accident on Clapboard Ridge Road. The accident happened before 5:30 p.m. near the intersection with Old Hay Rake Road. Two women and two men were involved in the accident.
Photo: Michael Duffy

One of four people who were trapped in an extended cab pickup truck...

Four people were trapped in an extended cab pickup truck Monday evening following an accident on Clapboard Ridge Road. The accident happened before 5:30 p.m. near the intersection with Old Hay Rake Road. Two women and two men were involved in the accident.Surgens were called to the scene.
Photo: Michael Duffy

Four people were trapped in an extended cab pickup truck Monday...

Four people were trapped in an extended cab pickup truck Monday evening following an accident on Clapboard Ridge Road. The accident happened before 5:30 p.m. near the intersection with Old Hay Rake Road. Two women and two men were involved in the accident.

Photo: Michael Duffy

Four people were trapped in an extended cab pickup truck Monday...

Four people were trapped in an extended cab pickup truck about 5:30 p.m. Monday, Jan. 28, 2013, following an accident on Clapboard Ridge Road near the intersection with Old Hay Rake Road in Danbury, Conn.
Photo: Libor Jany

Four people were trapped in an extended cab pickup truck about 5:30...

Four people were trapped in an extended cab pickup truck Monday evening following an accident on Clapboard Ridge Road. The accident happened before 5:30 p.m. near the intersection with Old Hay Rake Road. Two women and two men were involved in the accident.

DANBURY -- Four people were injured -- two seriously -- when the driver of an extended cab pickup truck lost control of the vehicle on an icy patch of Clapboard Ridge Road Monday and crashed into a utility pole.

Firefighters struggled for more than an hour to extricate the driver, who begged them in Spanish to get her out of the truck.

"It was horrible. Her legs were impaled by a piece of metal, so we couldn't just lift her out," Deputy Fire Chief Charly Slagle said. "We had to cut everything away to see what was holding her in."

Concerned by the woman's loss of blood, rescuers asked that a surgeon and an emergency room doctor be sent from Danbury Hospital if it was necessary to amputate her legs. But minutes after the doctors arrived, firefighters were able to cut away the last of the wreckage and pull her free.

The accident occurred shortly before 5 p.m., when the northbound truck entered a descending curve near Old Hayrake Road.

"It looked like the truck was going to make a wide turn into a driveway, but then I realized it was out of control," said Kafi Rouse, who was driving directly behind the pickup. Rouse said the truck was not speeding, but apparently hit a slick patch of the road.

"I almost lost control myself, but I was able to stop," she said.

The late-model Chevrolet Z71 came to rest off the right shoulder of the road, the driver's side of the vehicle against the pole, which snapped about 10 feet above the ground and leaned precariously over the wreck.

"We heard a boom, and then the electricity went out," said Joseph Abreu, who lives nearby.

Two passengers, a man and a woman who were riding on the right side of the truck, were able to get out under their own power, and firefighters freed the third passenger, who was seated directly behind the driver. He had been partially ejected but his legs remained pinned inside the vehicle.

All four were taken to Danbury Hospital.

Neighbors stood on their lawns and in the streets as the dramatic rescue unfolded.

"It's pretty bad," Abreu said. "The driver was screaming in Spanish, `Please take me out of here.' "

Emergency medical personnel administered a sedative to calm her down, but the woman remained conscious throughout her lengthy ordeal, Slagle said.

Identities of the four injured parties and their conditions were not immediately available.